1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rack-and-pinion steering gear, in particular for motor vehicles.
In such steering gears, the steering shaft bears a driving pinion that engages a rack which is arranged laterally with respect to the steering shaft and which is movable axially. To support the rack and to press into the driving pinion, there is provided a thrust piece that is retained in a housing borehole and that rests against the back of the rack by virtue of spring force. The thrust piece is supported via a stop in the housing. As stop, there is provided a snap ring, anchored in a housing borehole, and a supporting part, retained against said ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a steering gear known from EP A 0 124 418, a disc lies as supporting part on the snap ring and, supported against the disc, there is a spring that keeps the thrust piece resting against the rack without clattering. This kind of thrust piece support has a very simple structure but, to adjust the play, one must measure both the thickness of the snap ring and the thickness of the disc. In addition, there is the fact that the disc must be mounted and must be held during the assembly of the snap ring.
The object of the invention is to find a reasonably priced and elastically yielding thrust piece support that will require less parts and that will use parts that are simple to install. Such a design should be suitable particularly for the large-series production of rack-and-pinion steering gears to be used in smaller passenger cars.